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Faux Dragon
Faux Dragons, sometimes called Whelps, are creatures that resemble normal dragons but are only the size of an average cat or small dog. With four legs and a pair of wings, they are a minaturized version of their ancient cousins. Those whelps who have been domesticated can double their wild-kin sizes thus becoming a rather large 'pet'. Physiology Faux dragons, like "real" dragons are, essentially, a warm-blooded reptile. Like Dragons and Drakes they possess the ability to breathe fire by way of two glands on the lower back part of their jaw that excreete a chemical that when combined in the air will produce a napalm-like stream of fire. The range of this firey blast varies depending on the type of faux dragon. Faux dragons also possess an above-normal intelligence for animals which would place them around the age of a three year-old human child. They are able to understand and process simple commands and, thanks to their phenomoneal gift of mimicry, respond with a dozen words or so. Faux Dragons will mature from hatching to being able to hunt within two months - in which time they will learn to fly and then hunt from other members of their troop. By the end of their nine months of life a male faux dragon will be able to and feel the urge to mate.Females, however, will take nearly a full year if not a little longer to go into heat. Female whelps are always easily recognized by their head sails. Female whelplings have lighter shades of their colored webbing between the ridges of their head sales as well as their wings. The lick of a Faux Dragon's tongue is considered antibacterial. One of the oddest and best things to get should you have an open wound is to have a faux dragon lick the area as it will prevent contact infection in a similar fashion as to smearing it with fresh honey. Ecology Behavior Environment Faux Dragons inhabit temperate forests, marshes, mountains and coastal areas in the wild, but they can often be found in nearly environment once domesticated. Shedding Faux Dragons will shed their skin often as they mature from a hatchling. A well-fed whelpling will shed its skin once a week during the first two months of its life as it is constantly growing in size. Prior to shedding, their skin will be dry and itchy and they will always be scratching at it. Once free of the dead skin, they will be very tender and often require a rub-down with Bitterleaf leaves to sooth their achy skin. Diet Faux Dragons are basically omnivores. In the wild they will eat everything from small rodents to insects, fruit and the occasional snake. Domesticated Faux Dragons enjoy a wide variety of foods to eat, depending on their owners, but are typically fed scrap meat. One dietary restriction that Faux Dragons have discovered has been cheese. Any kind of fermented diary product will cause severe gastric distress and explosive diarhea. No owner in his right mind would ever feed cheese to a Faux Dragon twice. Mating Female Faux Dragons experience a periodic mating urge. During a year a female whelp will rise roughly four times per year; roughly once a season. This allows them the potential of producing four clutches a year though only those who did not successfully mate in spring will go into heat in fall. When a female comes into estrus, interested males compete to catch her in a mating flight. Usually, the female chooses the male who impresses her the most with his skill in the flight, although inexperienced females may be caught before making their choice. The pair actually mate in midair; thus, the higher they get during the flight, the longer their mating can last. It is guessed that longer matings result in larger clutches. Once a female has successfully mated she will lay her clutch of 4-6 eggs within four weeks. The eggs will then harden and mature in the nest for another month. Although they do remain together for the birth of the clutch, Faux dragon pairs are not life-long. A mated pair will usually last just short of a month - until the young are old enough to fend for themselves. Colonies Groups of Faux Dragons gather in numbers of up to a dozen or so and are called Troops. Troops are usually lead by a strong male with a few lesser males and several females. Troops A troop of wild, green whelps, for example, will establish a colony wherever there's enough food to sustain them. As they are carnivores, many human farmers have figured out that if you attract a troop to your fields they will keep the rodent population from eating your crop. The problem for the farmers is that once you have attracted a troop - it's difficult to get rid of them. A common means of attracting a troup of greens is to tie some shiney bits of metal into the branches of a tree and leave some fresh meat nearby. One of the male scouts will surely see the shiney bits and once he's gotten a belly full of meat he'll fly back to the troop to inform them of his discovery. This will usually involve the scout male attempting to get a lesser female to follow him back to the shiney tree with the food. If he is successful in luring one of the lesser females way from the colony he might be able to get a new troop started with the lesser female. As whelpling society is matriarchal there will always be an Alpha female in the troop as well as a Beta female and several other 'lesser' females. Each of the lesser females would like nothing better than to establish their own troop. By splintering off from another troop, the lesser female will attract several of the lesser, scout males to follow her. Should she decide that the area around the shiney tree is acceptable and a suitable nesting area can be located she will find herself a perch upon the nesting tree and trumpet out a call letting any other female know that she is claiming that region and that should any other female should either stay away or present herself as a 'lesser' member of the new troop. Nests Faux Dragon females will build a nest of nearly anything to keep the eggs gathered together. Depending on the type (color), their nests can be located in a cave, mountain cliff, coastal area, or in tree tops. Once the nest is created and a layer of debris is gathered, she will lay a clutch of between four to eight eggs and then pile on more and more debris until she has a small aerial mound. For the next month she will have to carefully monitor the temperature of the mound to ensure that the eggs to not get too hot or too cold. She and the male will take turns watching the mound while the other hunts. It is not unheard of for Troops to clutch collectively within a single nest or in a few nests in a small area. Should the nesting grounds be threatened, the Faux Dragons will each grab an egg and fly away to safety. It is in this way that people are able to claim the dragonling's eggs for themselves. Simply startle the troop and threaten the nest and wait for them to fly off with most of the eggs. There are usually one or two left behind that couldn't be grabbed. Young Whelps After the eggs have hatched the young will be incredibly hungry The mother will be able to hear their small yelps and noises and will bring what food she can and leave it for them at the edge of the nest. Newly hatched whelps are incredibly hungry and will often eat as much food as they can stomach before passing out to sleep it off. Whelplings (a term used to describe a whelp during their first year), will often need (or want) to eat nearly a quarter their weight in food a day for the first few weeks. Eventually getting to a balanced weight around six months after birth where they eat only once a day. First Flight Two months after they've hatched, the young faux dragons are capable of short flights. During this first phase of development they've put on about half of their adult body weight and their wings have grown strong enough to support them. Types Domestication Reception As whelps are usually only found in the wild, the Kels only rarely see wild whelps near their cities and then it would probably be a blue here and there. The wild whelps in the north were seen as helpful pets to have around the farms and towns as they can, if handled properly, be used to eradicate vermine such as stirge wigs and keep any rodent population in check around the fields. They are, to most, a necessary annoyance that can occasionally get out of hand. In th south, however, it's a much darker story. As the South Marches have all but been controlled by the Order of the Blazing Sun since the Burning Times , whelps are seen as tiny dragons and, since dragons (drakes) are thought to be signs of ill-omen and dangerous magic, they have been hunted nearly to extinction. Caves where blacks would commonly nest were considered perfect meeting places for all those up to infernalist magic so they were usually burned out or filled in with rubble. Should a troops of greens be found near a farmer's fields, the OBS would suspect the farmer of being in some kind of dark bargain with a witch (as witches were known to use whelps as messengers). Therefore many farmers would burn out any nesting trees they came across. Blues were easily poisoned with tainted fish. Anyone in the south marches seen showing anything but outright hatred towards the whelps was seen as suspect. Trade Below are listed the prices to buy/sell faux dragons. Known Whelps Category:Faux Dragon Category:Fauna/Pet